Ice and Ice Cream on the 4th of July

We had a cook-out on July 4th, the day after the fireworks show.

Why did we not think of the idea earlier to feed the kids outside? Like the day before when everyone was here and it was a madhouse at dinner? It was so peaceful inside and they were so happy outside

 

Natalie, Emma and Luke had set up a store in the basement and wanted some buyers to go to their store. Jeff was a good sport and went down to see what it was all about.

Rebecca soon joined in the fun walking around the store to see what she might want to buy.

Sales clerk Natalie helped her find just the item she was looking for.

Emma used her calculator (with the help of her fingers) to add up the totals.

I love how Jeff got down to Luke's level as he was being checked out and having his purchases bagged up.

Rebecca is signing the charge slip. Look at all the sales Natalie had rung up that day (all those sticky notes stuck to the edge of the table). Let's just say I had done a lot of shopping earlier in the day.

Natalie was Miss Super Bagger as she grabbed the plastic sack by the handles and whipped it through the air to get it to open and then she had the merchandise in the bag in no time.

Every customer had to shop at least three times to make sure each of the three clerks got a chance to be "the dinger." Luke got the hang of dinging each item, but Emma stepped in for an intervention at his table when she heard him charging customers just one dollar. She felt that was outrageously cheap and computed a much higher amount.
Who knew an unused bag of ice thrown out on the dead lawn would be such a hit with the children?

They loved walking through the ice and throwing chunks of ice out into the street.

 They even thought they could go out in the street when they saw me standing in the street taking pictures of them.

It soon became a whole family activity.

Luke and Emma were anxious to show Sarah the wasp's nest they found under our mailbox. 

 The grandkids all love going up to sit on Roger's rock.

After the ice walking/throwing, we ate homemade ice cream.

Yummy way to finish off the 4th of July holiday.

Independence Day Celebration

Our family loves the 4th of July fireworks right up the hill from us at the golf course.

This year we did the best maneuver ever by having the men make a run up to the course to get the lawn chairs and blankets all set up early in the evening. Then when our group made the exodus from our house to the golf course, we knew we had great spots waiting for us.

It was the perfect opportunity to get a picture with all the grandchildren...or so we thought. We had a Logan escapee. He was sick and just wanted his mommy to hold him.  

Another attempt was made when Jacob entered the picture in hopes of making Logan happy. Then Eli took off on the run. He was sick, too, but it didn't seem to hinder him that evening.

Laurie got busy handing out light sticks to all the little kids.

There was dancing and smiling going on while waiting for the fireworks.

We took family group photos. (Glen and Kim)

(Jeff, Sarah, Eli and Carson)

(Dallas, Rebecca, Brooke, Caroline and Spencer)

(Jacob, Laurie, Natalie, Emma, Luke and Logan)

Let the fireworks begin!! Eli watched them with one eye covered.

Caroline plugged her ears. Spencer kept exclaiming over the fireworks in his sick, raspy, hoarse voice. And Logan slept through the whole show.

Fun show, fun time, fun family.

Quotes of the Week

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."
-- Leonardo da Vinci

 "I do not know the word 'quit.' Either I never did, or I have  abolished it."
-- Susan Butcher


"Kindness is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back to you."
-- Author unknown

Mark's Family's Visit and June Birthdays

It's always a happy day when Mark, Michelle, Hailey, Caleb, Thadeus, Kate and Nina come to town.

Mark is the baby of the family. I'll have to say the babies in his family are definitely growing up. Hailey, Caleb and Thad are getting very tall. Kate and Nina aren't little babies any more, that's for sure.

Time for the birthdays. Everyone listens with rapt attention to the announcement from Mom for which people get to blow out the candles in June. We missed our June 2nd birthday boy--Eli.

June 3rd goes to Brooke Golden--age 5 and getting anxious to go to Kindergarten.

June 28th means Caroline would soon be turning 3.

Caleb got to town just in time to get to blow out his 13 candles.

And look at Andy turning ___? Let's just say he gets older every year.

We woke up to 3s all around the house on Caroline's birthday.

Here's the birthday girl eating her birthday breakfast.

Here's Spencer trying to rip off one of the 3s.

Brooke and Caroline colored for a while until it was time to go to the new house.

We all wanted to see what the new house looked like with carpet in it. The carpet man was there tacking down the edges. It was much nicer in there to sit on the carpet to play.

That evening after dinner the birthday girl got to open up her presents.

And she had a birthday cake and candles.

Day after her birthday, Caroline and Brooke picked out which of the new bows they were going to wear in their hair.

Spencer got busy ripping off another one of the 3s.

The end of June meant no more birthday parties for me to take care of for the Golden girls and it also meant Dallas and Rebecca were indeed moving out of here. New house--here they come!!!!